Bruno Mars

Music is not math. It's science. You keep mixing the stuff up until it blows up on you, or it becomes this incredible potion.

Bruno Mars is a musician on the fast track to superstardom. The 26-year-old Hawaii-born singer/songwriter recently landed six Grammy Nominations including Best Song (“Grenade”) and Best Album for his debut Doo-Wops & Hooligans. The awards love and solo success came after working as a producer and lending some hooks and vocals to a string of collaborations with other artists. With a wide array of influences combing everything from reggae to Motown, Mars already has a unique sound and isn’t just some flash in the pan. He’s going to be cutting hits and melting hearts for quite a while.

MAGNETISM

With a pure soul voice that can often sound like a ‘70s time warp, Bruno Mars has the skills to both pay the billz (yes, with a "z") and slay the ladies. His musical output combines styles like R&B, pop, rock, hip-hop, soul, and reggae, which led to The New York Times calling him "one of the most versatile and accessible singers in pop.” When performing live, he’ll bounce around the stage and put on a show that makes it clear Michael Jackson was one of his many influences. He’s also perfectly at home sitting with a guitar and crooning his heart out. He’s not a manufactured pop sensation, but instead a genuine hit-making talent, which is a nice refresher from the usual record company fluff.

SUCCESS

For such a young performer, Bruno Mars has enjoyed an almost irritating level of success. He moved to Los Angeles to pursue a musical career straight of high school and signed with Motown Records almost immediately. There he met writer/producer Philip Lawrence and formed the production team The Smeezingtons. Soon they were cranking out hits for the likes of B.O.B., Hayley Williams, Brandy, and Adam Levine. That led to plenty of radio play and performances at the MTV Video Awards and the Grammys. A solo career was inevitable.

His debut album Doo-Wops & Hooligans was released on October 5, 2010 and quickly became a hit. The debut single “Just The Way You Are” shot to the top of the Billboard charts, and he nabbed a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 2011 ceremony, beating out none other than Michael Jackson. The following year the album itself made Grammy voters go nuts, and he collected six nominations, including Best Record and Best Song, with only the delightfully arrogant Kanye West earning more nominations.

With only one album under his belt, Bruno Mars is already a massive critical and commercial success. Where he goes from here remains to be seen, but chances are he’ll be in heavy rotation.

Bruno Mars Biography

If you haven’t figured it out by now, Bruno Mars is not the singer/songwriter’s actual name. He was born Peter Gene Hernandez in 1985 and was raised in a Honolulu family of six children. His father nicknamed him “Bruno” at an early age due to his resemblance to the chunky pro wrestler Bruno Sammartino, though Mars’ chubbiness has long since disappeared. Mars quickly developed a taste for music and was performing live by the age of three. Weirdly, he became famous as a child for his creepily accurate pint-sized Elvis impersonation, even landing a cameo appearance in the 1992 film Honeymoon In Vegas with the act.

Bruno Mars In Motown Records and The Smeezingtons

At 17, the aspiring musician graduated from high school and skipped college to head to Los Angeles and pursue his musical dreams. He quickly signed a deal with Motown Records in 2004, which the musician openly admits led to a whole lotta nothing in terms of his solo career. Fortunately, his time with the company did introduce him to longtime producing/writing collaborator Philip Lawrence, and together they formed the production team The Smeezingtons. Under that name, the pair produced tracks for a variety of artists. They started with the likes of K’naan and Flo Rida, and by 2011, they were producing for Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg. The duo also recently produced a single for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 soundtrack, but we’ll forgive them for that.

Bruno Mars Goes Solo

After working as a behind-the-scenes hit maker and backup vocalist for other stars, Bruno Mars went solo in 2010 with his single “Nothin’ On You” and the subsequent album Doo-Wops & Hooligans. Success came almost instantly, with huge record and digital sales, endless play on the radio and in clubs, as well as a variety of awards and nominations. The only snag along the way was a 2010 arrest in Las Vegas for cocaine possession, which Bruno Mars handled responsibly with a guilty plea and community service. But no successful musician should be without at least one drug scandal, so that incident didn’t come close to harming his image, and Bruno Mars’ star only seems to be rising. The man writes and produces his own music and even directs some of his music videos. Be prepared for this multifaceted talent to be around for quite some time, whether you like it or not.